In addition to building the new factory and acquiring servers, personnel would need to be hired to work in them. At a rate of 1 employee per 250 sqft. as per Mmannlofts, a 15,000 sq.ft factory could accommodate 60 employees. However, robots play a large part in the console manufacturing process. Using Amazon as a reference, robots outnumber human workers 10-to-1 (DiStefano, 2021). The main PlayStation manufacturing site, located in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, employs 32 robots to build a PlayStation console (Nikkei Asia, n.d.). At the stated 10-to-1 rate of robots to humans, 3 to 4 human employees would be needed per shift (8 hours) to maintain factory operations if the same set-up is used in the Brazil factory. That being said, SIE’s executive leadership may wish to adjust the employee count requirements as needed per business needs.

The amount of employees dictates the assigned speed at which the robots work, in order to complement the workflow process. As displayed in the visualization above, hiring 12 human employees (4 per 8-hour shift) will have the robots work at a pace of 1 console built every 90 seconds. 24 (8 per 8-hour shift) employees hired allows for an increased speed setting of 1 console built every 60 seconds, and 36 (12 per 8-hour shift) employees allows for an even more increased setting of 1 console built every 30 seconds. Analyzed in the scope of the 500,000 new customer initial goal, a 12-employee factory will build 500,000 consoles in 521 days, a 24-employee factory will build them in 348 days, and a 36-employee factory will build them in 174 days. In other words, the amount of employees directly affects the timing of the return on investment.

With a factory worker salary rate of BRL 36,343 ($6716.01) (Economic Research Institute, n.d.), the visualization below details the costs of hiring the employees.

Further, at a rate of $599 per console, the visualization below outlines the potential revenue gained 6 months into production.